ELECTRO-OPTICAL METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IN SITU MEASUREMENTS OF PARTICULATE MASS DENSITY

摘要

ABSTRACTA system and method provides electro-optical in situmeasurements of the mass per unit volume of particulate mattersuspended in a fluid medium. A beam of electromagnetic radiationis directed through a portion of the medium and radiation back-scattered from an optically defined volume thereof is detectedand utilized to provide an indication of the mass of the par-ticles per unit volume of the medium. The beam is preferablya periodically interrupted beam of substantially monochromaticlight having a wavelength of the order of magnitude of the meandiameter of the respective particles of interest. In one em-bodiment, the d.c. component of the detection signal isfiltered out to eliminate the effect of any backgroundradiation.